Category Archives: Diet
Learning Binges
Yesterday I went on a learning binge. By learning binge I mean:
- I spent hours searching all my favorite blogs for new sources of information. I perused some great new fitness blogs such as myathleticlife.com and beheavy.wordpress.com.
- And I googled the heck out of women’s fitness, lifting, powerlifting and strong is the new skinny (which by the way…I LOVE THIS “MOVEMENT!”).
And during this learning binge I found so many topics that I want to discuss. But this morning (sore, grumpy with two hours of spin ahead of me), the only thing I wanted to talk about was the learning binge itself.
Yesterday just reminded me of how important it is to constantly seek out new information – how important it is to always be open to learning.
We can never know everything so to really be knowledgable about any subject, we must always be seeking out new knowledge. We must be in a perpetual state of learning.
So sometimes we must go on learning binges. I usually check out the same few websites, but every couple of months I’ll spend an extra few hours searching everything in sight (which can include picking the brain of any human around me!). When I do this I’m looking for any new studies or developments that have come out about fitness or nutrition. I’m also looking for new exercises and new trends in women’s fitness.
I’m looking for information and not just information that reinforces what I already believe (actually most of the time I’m searching for information that argues against what I believe in just so that I can tell them how wrong they are! :-P).
I don’t like to follow anything blindly, even lifestyles I agree with and/or follow. There is always someone out there with a slightly different perspective on things. AND that new perspective that you find may help you adjust your lifestyle to make it work even better for you.
I always inform my clients of new things that I’m trying or topics that I’ve found. I want them to start exploring fitness and health by themselves. I want them on a constant quest for knowledge or at least to every once in a while go on a learning binge!
Of course a constant quest for knowledge isn’t just about finding new information it is also about trying it out!
Self-experimentation is an integral part of learning. I mean how do you really know if something works unless you try it out!?!
If you find a new workout routine, try it out! A new diet, try it out! But when you “test” something, make sure you first follow the plan EXACTLY. If you cheat on what is prescribed, than you aren’t giving it a fair shot. You can’t really honestly report back on how that workout or diet works.
But once you’ve found something that you like, edit it! Learn more about the diet through research and experimentation and then make changes to the diet or workout plan so that it works perfectly for you. Once you’ve done the research and run an experiment on yourself (sounds sort of creepy but it isn’t!), tailor it to fit your specific needs!
By constantly trying to learn, you will find a diet and fitness plan that works perfectly for you (a.k.a. it keeps you satisfied while helping you look AMAZING and reach your fitness goals!) 🙂
“All Natural” – HA!
Honestly, what does “all natural” mean?
When it’s on a food label, it means ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!
I found this “all natural” product the other day on a fitness blog (which will remain nameless because they should be ashamed of themselves for recommending this product!).
Vanilla frosting flavor...definitely sounds all natural to me
This is what the blog said, “A single-serving bag of these popped potato and multigrain crisps (similar to Popchips) have about 110 to 120 calories of crunchy munching in them. Not to mention that they’re all natural, with no cholesterol, no trans fat, no saturated fat, no preservatives, no MSG, no high fructose corn syrup, and are gluten-free and Kosher certified.”
These chips that they claim are “all natural” have tons of all natural ingredients in them like “vegetable oil, gum arabic, natural flavor, disodium phosphate, and vanilla frosting seasoning (which contained the gum arabic).”
Yea…sounds REAL natural to me.
The blog article also states, “While they don’t have a ton of nutritional value, they certainly don’t have a bunch of bad stuff in them and are a huge improvement over your usual full-fat chip.”
A huge improvement? Not bad? No nutritional value?
They sound just as bad to me! I mean they are freaking chips with no nutritional value!!
If they lack any nutritional benefit, why eat them?
If they are empty calories, you probably shouldn’t eat them unless you are cheating. I mean most of us aren’t active enough during the day to use those empty calories.
PLEASE DON’T LISTEN TO ARTICLES LIKE THIS!! If you have to make an excuse as to why a food is “ok” to eat, you probably shouldn’t be eating it!!!
AND don’t be fooled by food labels that say the product is “all natural.” If they have to tell you the product is “all natural,” it probably isn’t.
Conventional Wisdom is wrong – The Skinny on Fat
So last night Ryan made pork belly…which was juicy and fatty and ABSOLUTELY delicious.
Soooo good! And perfectly healthy!?!
Today when I came into work and talked about eating the super fatty piece of pork (which is what bacon is made out of), I was told that it sounded like an artery clogging meal.
I, of course, disputed the statement because I believe that fatty meats are good for you ESPECIALLY when the animal is raised in a NATURAL way.
Which our pork belly was. At Whole Foods, they have a rating system, which goes 1-5 (5 being raised PERFECTLY naturally). Our pork belly was a 4, which means that our pork was pastured pork. The pig was allowed to roam and grub and socialize as it would naturally. Because the animal lived naturally, the meat is actually better for you!
As an article I found on The Benefits of Pastured Pork states, “Pastured pork is more nutritious. Pastured pork has higher levels of vitamin E, healthy Omega-3 fatty acids,and many other nutrients than conventionally raised pork.”
All naturally raised animal meats also have more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). CLA may “help reduce body fat mass, reduce risk for certain types of cancer — including stomach and colon cancers — and protect against arthrosclerosis, according to a 2003 study published in “Lipids in Health and Disease.” It also has purported benefits for high cholesterol and alleviating inflammatory bowel disease.”
AND GUESS WHAT!?!
Conjugated linoleic acid is a FAT!
So the fatty, naturally raised meat that I’m eating isn’t going to clog my arteries, but may actually help with my high cholesterol!!! This FAT may also help me stay SKINNY.
Still don’t agree that fatty meat is good for you? Still think that what I’m saying is all well and good, but that the saturated fat in the fatty meats isn’t good for me?
Well you are wrong. Here is a study that shows that saturated fat may not in fact be connected to an increased risk of coronary heart disease or cardiovascular disease.
Don’t let conventional wisdom fool you into thinking that fat is bad for you! Do your own research. Here are a few other articles with the real facts about fat!
The Definitive Guide to Saturated Fat – Mark’s Daily Apple
Robb Wolf also has some good info about fats and the Paleo diet in general. Click here.
Full of excuses and just about everything else…
I’ve been slacking on my diet recently and making excuses for it. I haven’t stuck to my diet consistently since going on vacation. I’ve eaten just about everything Boston has to offer and lots of it.
This wasn't one of my excuses, but it's close.
My excuses have been:
- I’m tired and just don’t have any self-control today.
- It’s someone’s birthday so I just need to go with the flow and eat whatever.
- I just want to have fun.
- Oh well…I’ll get back to it next week.
- I’m upset and I just want bad food because it will make me feel better.
But food hasn’t made me feel better. It hasn’t really even made the birthday celebrations that much more fun!
And today…I feel like the marshmallow woman. I feel disgusting. And I’m upset with myself for making up excuses and letting myself slack for like 3 weeks straight. Not one week or even two…but THREE.
I’m especially upset since I think that all of my slacking has started to effect my lifting. But…I WON’T LET IT CONTINUE!
I know these dieting setbacks are going to happen. It’s ok to slip up every once in a while. Everyone does it. But you can’t let minor setbacks lead to a downward spiral.
Figure out why you are struggling to stick to your diet – figure out the issues behind the excuses. Realize where you behavior is leading and decide if that is really the way you want to be heading.
And then remind yourself of your goals. Remind yourself of why you were on the diet, workout plan, lifestyle in the first place.
Here is my reminder of my overall goals for the Primal/4 Hour Body Diet:
- Gain muscle.
- Keep from gaining a ton of fat while adding strength for the Powerlifting meet.
- Look AWESOME!!
- Be healthy – eating only whole, good for me foods. (This is honestly probably the most important although sadly not as motivating as looking amazing!)
Once you’ve reminded yourself of your overall goals, set some measurable goals that you can track over the next few weeks to keep yourself dedicated and get yourself back on track.
It is even helpful to look back at all the progress you have made. It can motivate you to get back on track and it can help you set some realistic and measurable goals for the future.
So don’t let a slip up spiral out of control! Don’t keep making excuses. There is no time like the present to get back on track!!
How’s that working out for you?
Maybe it’s just that I have a mean streak, but don’t you ever just want to ask someone “How’s that working out for you?”
Like don’t you just want to ask when someone (who is clearly out of shape) orders a non-fat skinny soy chi tea latte with 7 pumps, thinking they are being extremely healthy? I must admit, even if you don’t want to…I DO!
I want to ask people who all the time.
Like when a man with a beer belly walks into the gym to sign up. And I ask, “Would you like to set up one of your complimentary training sessions today? And he says, “No. I already have a program. I’m all set.”
I just want to look down at his belly and ask, “How’s that working out for you?”
How do these people think that what they are doing is working? How do they not see that they aren’t getting results?
My theory is that they just BELIEVE what they are doing SHOULD be working. Conventional wisdom – magazines, TV, radio, internet – have all told them that it should work. Low-fat diets are SUPPOSED to lower your cholesterol and make you healthier. Non-fat milk is SUPPOSED to be better for you (I mean it has fewer calories right!?!).
People ignore the obvious fact that they still haven’t reached their goals because they are doing what is SUPPOSED to work.
These people really should be taking a look at themselves and asking, “How is this working out for me?” I bet you a lot of them would want to reassess their diet and exercise programs afterwards.
So if you aren’t seeing the results you want, stop assuming that because the magazine or some celebrity said the diet works that it works. Because it probably doesn’t.
For example…the workouts in Muscle and Fitness. Those workouts, with some huge guy posing next to them, only work for that guy because he is taking STEROIDS. Just like in Muscle and Fitness most of the popular diet out there have some hidden stipulation that you probably aren’t doing.
Do some research. Experiment. Try different things and let the results speak for themselves.
Please don’t be that person walking down the street following the newest diet trend that makes me want to ask, “How’s that working out for you?”!!!!
Oh NUTS!
Candy and I love nuts – almonds, cashews, pistachios, macadamia nuts…
We are nut addicts. We probably don’t even go one day without devouring at least a handful of nuts.
And I’d always thought this was fine. I mean nuts have good fats and they aren’t super high in carbs. They seemed to fit perfectly with the Paleo/Primal diet. AND they are an easy snack to grab whenever I need something quick.
But are all these nuts really good for me?
Unfortunately, I’ve discovered the answer is probably…no. 😦
I started eating more nuts when I cut out grains and legumes because of the food toxins they were supposed to contain. I figured they were a healthier substitute. BUT nuts still contain phytic acid, which is one of the main reasons you aren’t supposed to eat grains and legumes. And nuts may contain as much if not more phytic acid than grains and legumes do.
Here’s why phytic acid is bad:
1. Phytic acid inhibits mineral absorption especially iron and zinc.
2. Phytic acid interferes with the enzymes that breakdown protein.
A diet high in phytic acid can cause mineral deficiencies which can lead to disease!
Check out this article about why nuts may not be that good for you. I found it on Mark’s Daily Apple!
Is eating well expensive?
Nope.
Don’t make up excuses as to why you have to buy chips and soda instead of fruits and vegetables. Eating healthily isn’t expensive.
Of course, companies would like you to think that their processed crap is the only thing you can afford – they would love to make you believe that buying whole, healthy foods will break the bank.
BUT IT WON’T!!! For $75 Ryan and I bought over a week’s worth of food at Trader Joe’s AND NONE OF IT WAS PROCESSED! We even splurged on all ORGANIC vegetables and grass-fed beef!
AND we are two people that eat A LOT! We can easily each eat over a pound of meat for dinner. We got somewhere around 10lbs of meat (grass-fed ground beef, steaks, pork, nitrate free bacon, an organic whole chicken…), organic vegetables to last throughout the week (lettuce, spinach, bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, diced tomatoes..), kefir, some diet soda (not perfectly healthy but hey a small cheat!), organic salsas, nuts and a couple of other things I can’t remember right now…
So you can easily afford to eat healthily! Don’t be fooled by articles like the one written by Sheila Steffen that question whether or not you can live on $30 a week. You can and you can eat well while you are doing it!
Don’t believe me? Try it! Next time you shop for the week only buy whole foods and see how far your dollar goes!
Oh Conventional Wisdom – How I hate you
Every day I hear the lies of conventional wisdom perpetuated and sometimes I just want to scream. Here are some things that I’ve heard recently that go along with conventional wisdom that are complete and utter BULLSHIT.
Piece of Conventional Wisdom: Women shouldn’t lift weights because heavy lifting will make them bulky.
Conversation (about six months ago):
Me: So what diet, or how much protein, do you think someone needs to add more muscle if they are lifting heavy?
Nutritionist: Why are you lifting heavy?
Me: Because I want more muscle and I want to be stronger. (I think I had an expression of “That is such a dumb question! DUH to get strong and add more muscle!”
Nutritionist: But you don’t want to get bulky do you? If you lift too heavy, you may get bulky especially if you are taking in a ton of protein.
Me: Uhmm…I still have chicken legs and I eat a ton of protein and have been lifting heavy for a while. I want to get rid of my chicken legs…
Nutritionist: Well I wouldn’t lift heavy as a woman. I do lots of cardio.
Me: (I left the room.) End of conversation.
REASONS THIS IS BULLSHIT: Let’s get one thing straight right now…LIFTING HEAVY WON’T MAKE YOU BULKY! If you can’t accept this…you are on the wrong website. I’m not even going to take the time to list all the reasons why this is incorrect. If you need me to refute this piece of conventional wisdom just read about any other post on this blog. Or just take a look at this picture…Is this a big bulky woman? I’d hope your answer is no….
Piece of Conventional Wisdom: You need to eat breakfast and you should eat 3-5 small meals a day. And you definitely can’t work out on an empty stomach.
Conversation:
I tried intermittent fasting a few months ago and really liked it. I told people about it. The common reaction I got was: “You won’t be able to lift as much on an empty stomach or you will run out of gas. Your workouts will be hurt because you haven’t eaten.”
Lots of people also said there was no way they could do it. They said they NEED breakfast. They DON’T NEED breakfast. They are just conditioned to want it.
REASONS THIS IS BULLSHIT: To date, I’ve had some of my best lifting days and workouts on days when I’ve fasted till after I workout. If you want more proof that intermittent fasting works, visit LeanGains.
Piece of Conventional Wisdom: 45-65% of your daily calories should come from carbs.
Conversation (When people find out that the only carbs I eat on occasion other than cheat days are fruits, vegetables, and potatoes.)
Person: I could never give up bread! And I need carbs to get through my workouts and to refuel afterwards.
Me: But on most diets you have to give up something. With other diets you’ve managed to give up “bad” foods like fatty meats. If simple carbs, like white bread, is bad and bacon isn’t, why can’t you just switch what you give up.
Person: But you need carbs to function. The food pyramid has carbs on it.
REASONS THIS IS BULLSHIT: Ok for one, most people aren’t working out hard enough to really NEED carbs. And if you are doing crossfit intensity workouts, add in potatoes and such and you will be more than fine.
For two, it is never easy living life the healthy way. Of course there are outside temptations, but really you’d rather eat bread than butter and bacon? I don’t know…butter and bacon for bread seems like a pretty good trade-off to me…Plus, doing something that will make you healthier makes sacrificing bread seem very worthwhile.
If you want more information about letting go of carbs and why you DON’T need them, visit Mark’s Daily Apple.
Piece of Conventional Wisdom: Bacon and butter are not good for you. High fat diets will raise your cholesterol higher and that is bad. Use vegetable oil or low-fat substitutes instead.
Conversation: There have been too many conversations about this with everyone around me. But the usual I hear is: “Dude all that saturated fat is so bad for you.” “You know that is going to raise your cholesterol? You really should use margarine instead.” “You cook with duck fat? You should use vegetable oil instead.”
REASONS THIS IS BULLSHIT: Usually when I hear these things, I become speechless because I don’t even know where to begin explaining how wrong they are.
I would just love for one of these people who say this to me to provide me with a study proving I’m wrong (a study that I can’t prove wrong). Of course they never do yet they question me (and I’ve actually done the research not to mention discussed the research with other people, such as Ryan, who’ve done even more research).
I mean I challenge anyone to bring me a study that definitively proves that fat is bad for you and that processed crap like vegetable oil, margarine and low-fat substitutes are better.
Here is my proof that fat is good and all that other CRAP is bad:
Mark’s Daily Apple
Good Calories, Bad Calories
Paleo Diet
Protein Power
Robb Wolff
For a full list of evidence, visit the UCLA Ancestral Health Symposium.
Oh and something that really pissed me off today….Denmark has put a tax on foods with saturated fat. This list of taxed items even includes olive oil. Does anyone else think there is something wrong with this? Check out the Time Magazine article on it.
News?
So I wasn’t fully awake this morning and wasn’t yet ready to start on the daily accounting package so instead I visited MSN Health to see if there were any interesting articles.
What I found disturbed me.
A video about 10 crazy diets, that was essentially just a list of ten diets, passed as an article! There was nothing informative about the video! Not to mention, the caveman or Paleo diet was on there! 😦
This video was surrounded by other dumb videos like “How to walk your way to a flat stomach” and “Lose weight by training your metabolism.” If it were that easy, why aren’t more people in shape!?!
There was also a video called “Five diet rules you can break.”
BLEH! I hate things like that. Five rules you can break? Then why are they rules?
Half the time articles like that just provide people with excuses to break their diets.
Why are we so worried about informing people about the rules they can break instead of telling them about diets that actually work? Why can’t people just be honest and say, “Look being super sexy is hard! Losing weight and keeping it off may be something you struggle with the rest of your life!”
And instead of just listing ten random diets, why don’t NEWS articles explain the diets and why they are supposedly wrong! Or why don’t they list 10 diets that may work for you?
Come on! Isn’t NEWS supposed to inform the population?
Supplementation
So I went to Vitamin World yesterday to buy some Creatine and protein powder with Ryan. And while we were purchasing these items, who did the salesman talk to? Ryan.
The guy never even asked me if I wanted any help.
Was I being ignored because I was female? Or was it just bad service?
I’m hoping it was just bad service, but it did get me to thinking about women and their comfort level with supplements.
Supplements and weight training go hand in hand. Most of the women think of supplements the same way they think about heavy weight training – both are just something men use to get big. They don’t consider the strength or fat loss benefits of supplements.
I was shy myself about using supplements. I first started by just taking protein powder. I would put it in my smoothies to make them more of a meal. I started doing this when I went on The Abs Diet.
And recently I’ve seen more and more women drinking protein powder. Of course they drink it as a meal replacement (and usually they drink Muscle Milk, which probably is the best tasting protein powder but also the one with the most junk in it).
But using protein is the first step to using supplements.
After becoming more comfortable with protein (and after I got really into gaining more strength and muscle definition), I started experimenting with other supplements. I tried L-Arginine and BCAAs (branch chain amino acids).
I tried L-Arginine because it was a nitric oxide booster. Nitric oxide causes vasodilation, which means the muscles around the blood vessels relax and the blood vessels dilate so that blood can flow more freely. Because the blood vessels are dilated, more blood can reach your muscle tissues, which means the muscles will receive immediate supplies of nutrients. Nitric oxide also helps with stamina and strength and improves performance because muscles are easily receiving required amounts of oxygen from the blood.
L-Arginine also supports the release of growth hormones, which can help repair muscle tissues and aid in muscle growth. It supposedly can also help with fat loss.
I didn’t like L-Arginine that much. It made me feel a little too wired and jittery during the workout. I may give it another shot though at some point because I did feel like I got in really great workouts when I took it.
I took BCAAs (branch chain amino acids) when I tried the Lean Gains intermittent fasting diet. They are the building blocks of protein and when you are fasting, they help you save your muscle tissue. I don’t really feel that they are necessary now that I’m not fasting and getting plenty of protein (from meat, eggs, fish, and protein powder). I do think they are good for you, but I just don’t think I need the extra BCAAs right now.
Now I’m going to try Creatine. Creatine has always intimidated me. Mostly I didn’t want to do it because of the water weight you can retain and the bloated look your muscles can get. BUT it does supposedly help you make strength gains. AND supposedly Creatine Ethyl Ester doesn’t make you retain as much water. We will see though.
For the next 30 days, I will be taking Creatine Ethyl Ester around my workouts. I will also be adding in protein powder (which I didn’t take last month with the slow carb diet). Other than that though the diet will remain the same as last month. With the same diet, I will see if I make greater gains because of the protein powder and creatine. I will also see how much water I retain while taking Creatine.
This should be interesting….We will find out if Creatine is one of Man Bicep’s favorite supplements!
Man Bicep 